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Early Individual Differences in Coping with Stress

Posted By: Monday October 17, 2005, 7:15pm
Date: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, at 3:39 a.m.

New York Academy of Sciences

2 East 63rd St (off 5th Avenue)

Psychology Forum

Program: Monday October 17, 2005, 7:15pm
You are invited to attend the following program of the Psychology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences. Students are especially welcome.

Speaker: Prof. Michael Lewis, Institute for Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, UMDNJ

Topic: Early Individual Differences in Coping with Stress: Emotional Behavior, HPA, and ANS Reactivity

Very young infants can be trained to pull a string to produce an interesting event. Once learned, an extinction phase is introduced where the string pull is no longer effective. Darwin argued that anger is an adaptive action pattern to overcome a barrier.

The majority of infants respond to this stress with angry faces, whereas the rest respond with sadness. Anger responses are associated with active attempts to overcome the blockage, while sadness is associated with giving up. More important, anger is associated with increases in heart rate (HR), the effort to overcome the barrier, but with no increases in cortisol stress response. Sadness is associated with no increase in HR but with increases in cortisol stress response.

These findings suggest that anger in response to a blocked goal is adaptive, while sadness is not. Moreover early anger responses are associated with later task persistence, whereas early sadness responses are not, also supporting the adaptive nature of anger.

Reservations Requested for Events at the Academy.

For reservations, go to www.nyas.org or 212.838.0230 x426 (dinner) x322 (program)

Click on calendar, then event, then reservation form. Or contact: psych@nyas.org

Members: Free Students: $10

Psychology Section Affiliates: Free Other Affiliates & Nonmembers: $20
Dinner (optional) at 6pm – By reservation: 212.838.0230 x426

For further information and/or to join the NY Academy of Sciences, go to www.nyas.org or call: (212) 838-0230: Full Membership: $95; Associate Membership: $60; Affiliate Membership in Psychology: $30.